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Cape Town – The SA Revenue Service (SARS) paid R18.5bn to 2.22 million taxpayers at the close of the tax season for non-provisional taxpayers on Friday November 24.
This is a 26% increase compared to last year, SARS said in a statement issued on Sunday.
It explained that these refunds apply to returns filed for the 2016/2017 tax year, which have been submitted during Tax Season 2017 from July 1 to November 24.
In total, R19.8bn in refunds have been paid to individuals for this financial year to date, inclusive of prior year returns. In the view of SARS this is directly contributing to household incomes and the domestic economy.
According to SARS 93.63% of tax returns were assessed within 24 hours and a total of 91.98% of taxpayers due for a refund and which was not routed for audit or risk verification, received their refunds in less than 72 hours.
Fin24 reported last week that the Tax Ombud told Parliament's standing committee on finance that it is not claiming that SARS is deliberately withholding the payment of tax refunds in order to boost its collection figures.
Derek Hanekom (ANC), a member of the committee, said during a briefing by the Tax Ombud that it is important to ensure that SARS is fulfilling its mandate. He wanted to know if one could say SARS is deliberately withholding refunds to taxpayers in order to boost its collection figures.
Hanekom said if the estimated R20bn in refunds allegedly being withheld by SARS had to be paid out by the agency, it could cause a "system collapse", since SA already has a budget shortfall of R50bn to deal with. Yunus Carrim, chair of the committee, added that some SARS officials actually told him something similar regarding refunds.
Fraudulent claims prevented
During Tax Season 2017, SARS said it prevented R2.7bn in fraudulent personal income tax claims, saving the fiscus from potential revenue loss. This was a R900m (50%) improvement compared to last year's tax season when R1.8bn in fraudulent claims were prevented.
By Friday November 24 SARS had received 5.67 million returns, including returns filed for prior years. This marked the close of tax season for non-provisional taxpayers.
Provisional taxpayers have until January 31 2017 to file their tax returns via eFiling.
According to SARS, the introduction of e-DNA ensured the biometric authentication of taxpayers and the increased security of personal information. This has significantly reduced the payment of refunds into fraudulent accounts, in its view.
There was a notable increase in the uptake of SARS’ digital channels such as the recently introduced “Help-You- eFile” service on eFiling and the SARS mobi-app. A total of 234 666 taxpayers used the Help You e-File channel – 35% higher than last year, while 47 605 taxpayers submitted their 2017 tax returns using the SARS mobi-app - a 7.3% increase from last year.
SARS emphasised in its statement that it remains resolute about meeting its revenue collection target for South Africa.
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